Today also marks the first day of school for all my friends, and for the first time in 6 years of going to school at Prep, I am not there. I am sitting at home writing this blog post while my friends see everyone again, go to their new classes for the first time, get the obligatory "This is what we will do in class this year" speech and give the obligatory "This is who I am and what I did this summer" speech, listen to announcements at assembly, and sit under the tree where we have eaten lunch almost everyday for years. And I am sitting at home with my sisters. Not that that is a bad thing, it is just very weird. It is such a strange feeling knowing that I am doing something so different than what I would normally be doing. Although I am not sad that I am not in school, I am sad that I can no longer spend the same amounts of time with my friends that I did this summer. It's an incredibly bittersweet time for me because I can't wait to begin my incredible adventure in Turkey, but at the same time seeing my "old" life beginning without me makes me sad. If there is one thing I have found while I've been getting ready to leave for Turkey, it is that I always have a mixed bag of emotions. I can be so excited to leave that I can barely stand it, but at the same time, I am so terrified to leave that all I want to do is say that I can't go. Thinking about my leaving scares me so much because I am about to leave everything I know here to go to a place where I don't know anyone and I can't speak the language, but at the same time, I can't believe how close I am to beginning an absolutely incredible adventure.
The Istanbul skyline. I can't wait to fly into this beautiful city in less than a month. I am so excited!
And now for a story that somewhat relates to my preparations for leaving. When I had already applied to YES Abroad but before I had even found out that I was a semi-finalist, I would (and truthfully still do) stalk the 2013-2014 YES Abroad students blogs and I found a blog of a girl who was currently in Turkey. The post I was reading had a fairly obscure reference to food in New Mexico which I just thought was a really weird reference to make if you weren't from New Mexico, so I went back in her blog and discovered that she was from another town here in New Mexico. When I first found out that I was moved up to being a finalist for Turkey, I emailed her to ask what kind of classes she takes in school to help me figure out if I could get credit for my year from my school. And just recently, as I got my host family and began researching about my new home, I discovered that she lived in the same town I am placed in and attended the same school that I believe I will be attending. So, I emailed her and asked if she could meet with me so I could ask her more questions about Turkey and her experience. Last week, she came to my house and my family asked her lots of questions and hearing all her stories about what an amazing experience she had and how much she loved and missed Turkey got me so excited to leave. It was also just absolutely amazing to be able to talk to an alumni of the Turkey program who had lived in the same place as me because the culture varies greatly even just across the country. She also told me that Priya and Kyle (two of the other YES Abroad students) are also placed in Aydin with me which I am very excited about because it will be nice to have other YES Abroad students for me to meet with and talk about our experiences, especially in the beginning when I maybe don't have as many friends yet.
Another exciting piece of news is that my bright yellow AFS luggage tags and my domestic flight ticket to get to New York for my gateway orientation arrived in the mail yesterday. Getting these luggage tags is a pretty big deal (at least for me and I think for most AFS students) and it really makes things more real for me. Every time some new piece of information about my exchange year comes to me, it makes things more real for me. When I first found out I was going to Turkey, everything was just a huge blank and with each new piece of information I receive, things become a little less vague for me. Unfortunately I still don't have any information about what our orientation once we arrive in Turkey will be like and I still don't know for sure what school I will be attending, but hopefully I will get that information soon. I also returned from a vacation to see my family in Illinois and Wisconsin and I had to say what I consider to be my first real goodbyes while I was there. I was surprised by how hard they were for me and it makes me very nervous for saying goodbye to my immediately family and my friends here. I guess I will just have to wait and see how those go for me.
Also, I am steadily working my way through the Rosetta Stone for Turkish. I still feel completely unprepared for the language barriers I will encounter, at least I know something. I often compare myself to a Turkish toddler because that is about the level I think I am at with the language. I am very proud of myself because I have finally sort of begun to understand vowel harmony and how the different suffixes on words work. Teşekkür ederim! Hoşçakal!
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